To find the motivation and the method that would energise the Catholic Church to change is a Sisyphean task. Turning any institution around is like turning around an aircraft carrier. If any human agency thinks they can achieve this without divine assistance they are truly delusional. More than human effort is required. We still need to pray to a personal God who cares and retains that freedom to intervene, the same freedom that has been given to us.

Mark Porter New Lambton

Your coverage of the Australian government's announcement of the members of the royal commission on child abuse issues clearly is lacking without reference to Hetty Johnston, and confirmation of her role as the founder of Bravehearts. You didn't even quote her in the section titled ''The Reaction''.

She was the initiator of calls years ago during John Howard's prime ministership for a royal commission. She is the mother of a sexually abused child by a family member. She maintained her steadfast pursuit of an open inquiry in the face of enormous opposition, private and public, begging her to ''go easy'' on the governments of the day.

That stance cost Bravehearts millions of dollars in government grants which should have gone to supporting counselling services nationwide for modern day victims. Johnston brought down a governor-general for conveniently forgetting his role in the Anglican Church when it ignored key aspects of the plight of sexual abuse from within its ranks in Victoria.

This royal commission will produce shocking revelations in the fields of governance, public service, religion, sport and society generally.

In no small measure, this is due to the diligent and controlled aggression of Johnston, a great Australian.

Michael Ross Abbotsford

Looking at Julia Gillard's photo announcing the royal commission (January 12-13, page 5), is it just me or is she beginning to channel Elizabeth I?

Catherine Courtenay Manly

Voters passed power from one set of mates to another

What a rotten deal NSW voters get. A Labor government which ran the state for Eddie Obeid and his mates; now a Liberal government bending over backwards for James Packer, mining giants and the poker machine-liquor lobby.

We have seen the O'Farrell government cave in to the mining companies about defunding the Environmental Defender's Office. Now we have James Packer having the last word on a press release. Governments are held hostage by the miners, gambling industry, media proprietors and property developers - they run the country and governments give in to their wishes.

So why don't we abolish governments and have billionaires run the country? We could have from the miners, Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Nathan Tinkler and Clive Palmer. Gambling could be run by James Packer and Tom Waterhouse, media by Rupert Murdoch, John Singleton and Kerry Stokes and property developers by Harry Triguboff.

Think how much we would save by not having politicians.

Robert Pallister Punchbowl

The parlous state of implementation of the Government Information (Public Access) Act (''It's time for transparency'', January 12-13), should give the O'Farrell government a further warning that cutbacks to so-called ''backroom'' administration in government agencies have a direct impact on the quality of service.

There is a complex interrelationship between the public's right to access government information and the individual's right to prevent disclosure to others of private information held by government agencies. This delicate balance cannot be maintained on the cheap.

What is particularly galling is no matter how much the government may collect from information requests and processing fees, none of it will be reinvested in administrative services because they are on a predetermined path of contraction.

Doug Walker Baulkham Hills

Whitehaven gamblers must take bad with good

With all the fuss about the Whitehaven Coal hoax, Nikki Williams's letter about ''the economic harm wrought by this hoax'' (January 12-13) being an example, it was good to read the quotes from Kevin Lewis of the ASX in your business section.

He clearly distinguished between investors and traders. Traders are simply gamblers on the stock exchange; anyone who sold Whitehaven shares on the basis of an unsubstantiated rumour is no more sensible than someone who bets on a Melbourne Cup horse because they overheard someone in a pub say it was sure to win.

There was no economic harm.

Michael Bailey Doon Doon

Much has been made of the losses suffered by investors as a result of the recent press release hoax, but the fact is that share prices recovered to their previous levels as soon as the hoax was exposed, which was a mere matter of hours after it originated.

Therefore, no ''investors'' have lost money. The only ones who have lost money are the ''gamblers'' who buy and sell shares in the hope of making a financial gain from momentary (and almost completely fictitious) changes in value that occur as ''traders'' jockey for the best betting position.

I'd suggest these gamblers have to expect losses from unforeseen vagaries of the market and that, if they don't like it, they should transfer their activities to the Star casino, which is a more appropriate venue for their activities.

Bruce Hyland Daleys Point

On behalf of the coal industry, Nikki Williams says that Bob Brown, the Greens, Clive Hamilton and various unspecified others are trying to reconstruct civil society. I'm at a loss to know precisely what she means by this, but it sounds far preferable to what her industry is doing to the planet.

Michael Hinchey New Lambton

With regard to the Whitehaven Coal hoax, I would suggest that the majority of ''investors'' who lost money were day traders being able to react within the few hours before the hoax was corrected.

A day trader could better be described as a gambler. I know, I was once one.

Also let's not forget that for every seller there is a buyer, suggesting that there must be a lot of ''investors'' who made money out of the hoax and are quite happy. The price recovered. Some gamblers lost, some won. Most serious investors would not have been affected.

Allan Thomas Lochinvar

Animal cruelty

Deidre Wicks (Letters, January 12-13), until humans acknowledge the thousands of similarities between us and other animals, people will continue to ignore the plight of our fellow creatures. It is blindingly obvious humans are animals; we and the other animals have hearts, lungs, livers, skin, hair, eyes, noses, lips etc.

I teach English to adult foreign students and whenever the topic of animals or animal rights comes up, I regularly ask them if they believe we are animals. The majority of people who say we are not animals are religious (and I mean no disrespect to people who are religious).

They believe that we are special beings put on Earth by their chosen god(s).

I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people say, ''Animals don't think; everything they do is instinct''. I find this hilarious, and a serious reflection of human ignorance at the same time. Who was it who said, ''Man is the only animal who blushes - or needs to''?

Andrew Orr Erskineville

Diving in deep end

A question regarding the purported causal link between swimming lessons and school performance (''Swimming lessons help children dive into school'', January 12-13): were the children randomly assigned to the swimming and non-swimming groups? Apparently not. Are parents who arrange early swimming lessons different in some ways from parents who do not? Probably. Could these differences be responsible for the children's different levels of academic skills? Quite possibly. Were swimming lessons compared with other types of instruction such as dance, physical culture, music and martial arts? Apparently not. Are swimming lessons vital for young Australians? Yes. Should the government subsidise private swimming lessons on the basis that they improve academic skills? No.

Bronwyn Bryceson Mangerton

Think, then speak

The mumblers at RailCorp are to be indoctrinated by the same mob responsible for the latest generation of TV and radio spruikers. Please don't let them graduate like most of the present crop of female reporters and presenters. They seem to take pride in razzing haphazardly up and down the scales, no matter the news. A two-syllable word can be delivered over four notes. News of a horrible death is read the same way as a rock show story. The news is not on show: the delivery is.

The ABC seems to be leading this charge. Most female readers now end their sentence with a crunching, grinding downward inflection and crunch their tonsils to mimic a grinding machine. I can see later attacks of throat cancer appearing from this silly system. Male readers don't seem to suffer these symptoms - yet. What happened to a news report with natural inflections and a dash of feeling? Pity the poor train guards.

Doug McLaughlin Bonnet Bay

Hardly charismatic

I don't wish to offend, Anthony Ackroyd (''Today's pollies can't match Hawke's charms'', January 12-13), but I have no earthly idea who you are. However, if you consider Hawke and Rudd to be our most charismatic politicians, I'm more than a little worried about you. Take a Bex and a good lie down and, when you wake up, you might like to reconsider your interpretation of ''charismatic''.

Mr Povey states that his delivery of bananas did not have to be in Sydney until the Monday morning, 24 hours after the time of the crash. Why could that load not have been sent by rail with smaller truck connections at each end? Or why couldn't the load have been split into two standard semi-trailer loads of 40 tonnes each, which might have less damaging impact than the 60-tonne B-double load?

This was a load of bananas, not urgent medical supplies or equipment. If there was no rush, and the B-double truck was the most suitable, why couldn't its use in urban areas or on non-divided roads such as at Urunga be restricted to daylight hours when chances of such a collision are less.

Mr Povey admits he had not travelled the Pacific Highway for years. Why couldn't B-double drivers be required to be familiar with their proposed routes, by travelling them every six months, even as an observer? This could be part of their logbook requirements. No approval for B-triples as proposed by the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, should be considered unless these matters have been addressed.

This section of the Pacific Highway, with others, has been a black spot for at least 27 years, yet it was only with the intervention of the Rudd Labor government providing the entire funding of $618 million for the Kempsey highway bypass that progress on highway reconstruction was made and has continued.

Mike Dutton Kempsey

Identification needed online

While Anne Summers is ready to embrace the digital edition of newspapers (''Newspapers no more, and online you realise it's about knowledge'', January 12-13), I am a bit sceptical of totally abandoning the paper editions. At present readers are able to contribute to a debate or issue by submitting a letter to the editor for consideration with full name and suburb.

But anyone who has read comments from the public at the end of an online article will know a lot of them are juvenile, puerile, abusive and quite often nasty, because the writer can hide behind anonymity and the facade of any alias they wish to use. Sometimes these contributors attempt character assassinations which some readers might believe. Surely the time has arrived that anyone who wants to contribute a comment must have their full name published.

Con Vaitsas Ashbury

Since my parent's marriage was announced in the Herald, this paper has been part of my life; in fact I am seriously addicted to it. No other will do. I've tried iPadding the pages, Anne Summers, but it's just not the same.

It also acts as a beacon for my neighbours: if the paper is still at the door, Joan might be dead!

Joan Croll Drummoyne

App versus trees

He was looking so forlorn, I took the dog for a 10 kilometre walk. He sniffed the base of every pole and tree on the way but only three reached the required standards for moistening. He has obviously downloaded the smell app, but despite that I didn't see him once use his mobile to answer the barks and he made up for lost time by dragging me up some very steep hills. Despite the distractions of his generation, he remains man's best friend.

Bernie Bourke Ourimbah

Skinned

What is the difference between bananas and dentists? An oversupply of the former results in a significantly lower price, but an oversupply of the latter has no effect on dental fees.

Mustafa Erem Terrigal

Rocked by prices

Your story (''Rock around the clock at revamped Uluru", January 12-13) states visitor numbers to Uluru are down from 395,000 in 2001 to 260,000 last year and operators are seeking to put the "solid" back into "solid rock".

In the Traveller section it is revealed that accommodation costs at Uluru are $400 a night at one spot and $320 a night twin share at another. Elsewhere in the section, advertisements invite you to the Kimberley for about $8000 for a 12-14 night stay. By comparison , a European tour operator offers a 33-day "heritage tour" of Europe from London through Germany, Greece, Turkey, Italy and France for $8500.

Based on these figures, perhaps it is time for stakeholders in "remote" Australian tourist destinations to take a long, hard look and assess the true worth of their "uniqueness" on the world scene, given the economic conditions. It is difficult to accept that travellers will rush to "remote" Australia for 12-14 days when for a similar sum of money they can have 33 days in Europe.